Heart of
Steel: Concert Reviews

By Michael De Los Muertos
Pictures and additional commentary by Ice Maiden

Fans of brutal metal, take
heart! We here at Metal-Rules aren't all about slaying dragons and
cavorting through the forest with elves, and even the most power-metal
mad of us (such as myself and Ice Maiden) still retain the ability to
enjoy a good old blood n' guts, ass-kicking death and black metal show.
As our experience at this landmark Portland show proved, brutality is
still the #1 metalhead-recommended ingredient to a great concert, and
the five bands on this bill definitely took the prescription seriously.

This was an important show for our metal scene here in Portland.
If you've been following our reviews for the past few months you know
that it's been feast or famine as far as metal shows are concerned,
and essentially us Portlanders are at the mercy of a single promoter
whose willingness to book metal shows changes with the weather.
What's really needed is another source of live metal, and the
Northwest Festival of Blood, Fire and Steel was an attempt at testing
that theory. Luckily the test came out very positively, as these five
bands showed, blazing gory (en)trails through a long night which had
its ups and downs, but ultimately left the crowd twitching in
metallic-induced glee.

The first band was the Cannibal Corpse
worshippers from Seattle,
the mighty and gory Drawn And Quartered.
As with their CD, which I reviewed some months ago,
you know exactly what you're getting from a band like this, and you get it --
straightforward Corpse-style death metal. With D & Q, however,
there is some energy and dynamism behind the material, which by itself
isn't that innovative. Indeed their set kept a tight pace and never
got tiresome. Frontman Herb Burke is famed for the impressive length
of his hair as well as his Cookie Monster vox, but he obviously
understands the importance of, above all, entertaining the audience
and giving them what they want. The highlight of their blood-soaked
set was probably the title track of their album, "To Kill Is
Human." Drawn left the stage with a happy crowd, having given
probably the most technically smooth set of the evening. This was
an excellent way to start things out. (Ice Maiden's
Commentary: D & Q is all about their "Cousin It"-ish
vocalist -- I was mesmerized by his hair length -- and incredible guitar
solos. My personal highlights were their songs "Incinerate the
Faithful" and "Christian Extinction." Yes, they sing death metal,
but I think that their song titles show a decidedly black metal
lyrical bent.)

The next band, Dead Bodies Everywhere,
is, I believe, from the Bay
Area. The first thing you'll notice is that the singer has only one
arm. While not as impressive as a drummer with one arm, a lot of
people in the audience will certainly remember this band for that
distinction. (Ice Maiden's Commentary: A one-armed man singing "Less
of a Man" with much rage in his voice somehow seems very fitting.)
The second thing you'll notice is that their metal, although brutal
and generally death-oriented, has a bit of a hardcore edge to it.
This dissatisfied some in the crowd, I'd expect, though not vocally,
and these guys were far more metal than they were hardcore. They
were clearly giving the show a 100% effort. I don't think they were
quite as energetic or crowd-pleasing as Drawn & Quartered, but on the
other hand, I heard no complaints about this band, and I have none
myself.

The next band to tee up was Wraithen. Their frosty slab of black
metal, in the form of their new demo
Cult Of The 11th Dawn, was
definitely impressive, and I was hoping that this -- their first live
show in more than two years -- would match its promise. It did. In
fact, Wraithen was the highlight of the evening and alone justified
the price of admission. Highly technical, offering blistering and
punishing black metal riffs, but with an impressive and well-arranged
array of melodic stuff in the background, Wraithen's material was
top-notch, and their playing was strong enough to overcome the few
technical obstacles that plagued almost all the bands all evening. "Folterkammergeist" was, in my opinion, the best song of their set
(and also on their demo), but that's not to say that the rest of the
material was in any way lackluster. Vocals and guitars were working
well in tandem and, if this band hadn't rehearsed a lot before this
show, I certainly couldn't tell. The crowd was extremely
responsive and enthusiastic for what was essentially a brand-new
band for many of them. With two above-average showings this year
already -- their demo, and this show -- I now have high hopes for
a Wraithen hat trick of successes, as this band is poised to do a
split 7-inch with the mighty depressing Germans known as Bethlehem.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: Wraithen was my favorite act of
the night, in large part because of the incredible showmanship of
their front-man and vocalist, Mike -- and not just because Mike is
willing to carve runes into his arms and chest to show his
dedication to his music before each show. Ouch. No, the reason
they were my favorite is because Mike knows how to perform. He
not only uses his voice, he uses facial expressions and a vast
array of posturing to get his point across. The last performer who
really struck me with his showmanship was Marduk's vocalist -- and I
really think Mike was on par with him.)

As the time ticked by with nothing happening after the Wraithen
set, I was wondering if the two remaining bands were going to run into
timing troubles -- this was a late show (10:00pm) and in the
alcohol-phobic Pacific Northwest, the world stops at 2:00am, to say
nothing of the phenomenon of "bar time" that might place "2:00am"
anywhere in the one o'clock hour. Thus when Impaled finally did get
onstage, there was a manic, rushed atmosphere about them.
Unfortunately their troubles were just beginning. A vocal mic
(or monitor) was completely dead, rendering every song by this
normally snappy death metal outfit an instrumental. Then the
guitarist began having problems as the cable that was literally
duct-taped to his guitar kept coming out. The guys in Impaled were
visibly frustrated, at one point the guitarist throwing down his
instrument in disgust (and a desperate last-ditch attempt to render
some vocals by screaming into the one working mic). I wish I could
give a real review of Impaled's set, but without having heard the
vocals, and guitars for the latter half of their short set, I can
only say that if things had been going well I think they would have
kicked ass. (Ice Maiden's Commentary: I was really bummed that we
couldn't really hear Impaled. Unfortunately, I found myself focusing
on the lack of vocals instead of enjoying their music. It's a shame,
because these guys were clearly out to have a good time and give the
crowd a good time. Even without their mics working, they managed to
get into it enough to slam into each other and end up in masses of
laughing faces and loads of big hair playing guitar on their backs on
the floor. Very '80s, in a good way.)

Now with the sand slipping ever
faster through the hourglass, the
headliner, Engorged,
struggled to clear away the debris of Impaled and
set up their own stuff. By now a good number of the audience members
were very drunk, and one guy deserves special mention. A short-haired,
non-metal looking bloke was not only an obvious Engorged maniac, but
also about eight or twelve sheets to the wind. Screaming, literally at
the top of his lungs, "ENGORGED! ARMAGEDDON!" in a hoarse monotone
over and over again -- perhaps fifty or a hundred times -- he was
undaunted by the blood streaming down his face from mosh-pit mayhem
during Impaled, and mugged for Ice Maiden's camera as he realized he was
the unwitting star of the show. It's rare that an audience member can
upstage a band, but Mr. Armageddon certainly drew attention to himself!
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: I think I will hear the words "Engorged!
Armageddon!" in my head for the rest of my days.)

Engorged finally did take the stage at nearly 1:40am. Guitarist Ryan
and vocalist Kevin (both veterans of Portland's legendary black metal
outfit, Thy Infernal) set the pace for the show, which was
blistering, brutal, blasphemous and played in as big a hurry as
possible. Luckily Engorged were not beset by quite as many
technical problems as Impaled, and they managed to fire off a
reasonable number of crowd-pleasers -- including, yes, "Armageddon,"
proving that the squeaky wheel does get the oil! In fact, Engorged
hit a pretty formidable stride in the last five minutes of their
truncated set, and I think in a way the time deadline may actually
have helped pump up the energy in the room. Sure enough, at 2:00am on
the tick, lights began to come on right in the middle of one of
their songs. I can state with much conviction that Satyricon is one
place you do not want to see with the lights on. The guys in
Engorged, and the audience begged someone (who? the sound guys? the
bouncers?) for time for one more song, but it wasn't to be. When
the house music comes on, the band members on stage might as well
be looking around for canes creeping out from behind curtains to
yank them offstage like in an old vaudeville act. Thus, a somewhat
disappointing ending, but on the whole Engorged put on a good show,
and justified their presence at the 'fest. (Ice Maiden's
Commentary: They did manage to get one guest vocalist on stage for
a final song. I'm not sure who this guy was, but there were two
notable things about him. First, when my pal "Engorged!
Armageddon!" (why don't we call him EA) worked his way to the front
to scream bloody gore, the guest vocalist kicked EA straight in the
face, to the extreme amusement of the crowd. Second, the guest
vocalist was shaved bald, and had an EXTREMELY short black vinyl
skirt on, under which he was wearing a black Speedo. And I know
what he was wearing under his skirt because mid-song he sat on the
stage with legs spread wide for us all to take a gander. Between
his actions and his get-up I can't say I remembered much about his
singing voice. Still, I give him a thumbs up.)

I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd at this show, both by its
size and its character. British Steel -- Portland's Judas Priest cover
band -- was playing at a strip club across town, and I feared that would
draw off some of the potential audience, but actually I think it might
have helped us by keeping poseurs and fair-weather friends away from
Satyricon and leaving this show rightfully in the hands of the true,
dyed in the wool metallers. I don't recall seeing any mallcore shirts
or baggy jeans. I do have to say, the mosh pit got a bit out of
control, however. I still don't see why a mosh pit has to be right at
the front, monopolizing the best space in the whole club from which to
watch a band up-close and enjoy the music. In a tiny venue like
Satyricon, the loss of space is particularly acute.

On the whole, this show was a success. Metal does have viability in
Portland, and we don't need to rely on promoters who dole out metal
shows like a Dickensian orphanage headmaster begrudgingly doling out
gruel to starving children. Kudos are definitely due to the home-grown
organizers of this show, and to all the bands who traveled, scraped,
skimped and worked their leather-clad tails off to make this show a
reality. It was a great time, and there wasn't even an elf or a dragon
in sight. Long live the brutality of metal!